he‧ro W3 /ˈhɪərəʊ $ ˈhɪroʊ/ noun (plural heroes) [COUNTABLE][date : 1500-1600; Language : Latin; Origin : heros, from Greek] 1. a man who is admired for doing something extremely brave ⇨ heroine: ▪ He had dared to speak out against injustice, and overnight he became a national hero. ▪ His father was a war hero, a former fighter pilot. ▪ the unsung heroes who drove convoys of aid to Bosniahero of ▪ a hero of the Great War ▪ A man hailed as a hero for 50 years has been unmasked as a traitor.

2. the man or boy who is the main character in a book, film, play etc ⇨ heroinehero of ▪ Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne’s ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’

3. a man who is admired very much for a particular skill or quality ⇨ heroinesb’s hero ▪ When I was small, Uncle Fred was my hero.hero of ▪ Einstein is the hero of those who explore science at its deepest level.

4. American English a long thin sandwich filled with meat, cheese etc • • • COLLOCATIONS (for Meanings 1 & 3) ADJECTIVES/NOUN + hero ▪a real/true hero ▪ The real heroes were the guys who fought in the front lines.▪a great hero ▪ He finally got to meet his great hero, the Brazilian footballer, Pele.▪a national hero ▪ They regard Aung San as a national hero and martyr.▪a local hero ▪ Richards was a local hero, a star of the football club.▪a popular hero (=someone whom many people admire) ▪ Ross was an arctic explorer and popular hero.▪a cult hero (=someone who a particular group of people admire) ▪ He became a cult hero among surfers.▪a war hero (=a soldier who was very brave in a war) ▪ Coming home, he was hailed as a war hero.▪an unsung hero (=someone whose bravery or effort is not noticed or recognized) ▪ These volunteers are the unsung heroes of the campaign.▪an unlikely hero (=someone who you did not expect to be brave or did not expect to admire ) ▪ Baxter was the unlikely hero of the game.▪a sporting hero (=someone who people admire in a sport) ▪ Tiger Woods was his sporting hero.▪a folk hero (=an ordinary person who does something brave and becomes a hero in a particular place) ▪ Cesar Chavez has folk hero status in the Latino community.▪an accidental hero (=someone who becomes a hero by chance) ▪ He became an accidental hero after discovering the injured child while out walking.▪a conquering hero (=someone who has defeated someone else) ▪ Team members were greeted like conquering heroes on their return.▪sb’s boyhood/childhood hero (=someone who was your hero when you were a boy/child) ▪ McEnroe had been one of his boyhood heroes. verbs▪become a hero ▪ He became a national hero for his part in the war.▪be hailed (as) a hero (=people say you are a hero) ▪ He was hailed a hero after saving the young girl’s life. phrases▪get/be given a hero’s welcome (=be treated as a hero when you arrive somewhere) ▪ The team were given a hero’s welcome when they returned to the city.

nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIESa war hero▪ At home he was hailed as a war hero.die a hero/rich man etc▪ He died a hero on the battlefield.folk hero▪ Casey Jones is an American folk hero.hailed a hero▪ A young man is being hailed a hero tonight after rescuing two children.hero worshiptragic hero (=the main person in a tragedy)unsung heroes▪ one of the unsung heroes of French politicsCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS ADJECTIVEfolk▪ Just the kind of marginal folkhero they would go and use as a mascot.great▪ When Finubar returned to Ulthuan he was hailed as a greathero.▪ And indeed for a time Patroclus fought as gloriously as that greathero himself could have done.▪ The Warden of the City is the great Elven hero Eltharion.▪ He was a personage of quite another order from the greathero of Athens, Theseus.▪ His chief councillor and military leader was William of Toulouse, one of the great Frankish heroes.▪ The great Athenian hero was Theseus.▪ I no longer cared about seeing the film, though it was to be the last with my greathero Sean Connery.▪ With their behavior toward Mr Cengic, they have made him an even greaterhero of his country.local▪ In my section I had one of my localheroes, Tony Scott, about four or five pegs away.▪ The subjects of Wuerttemberg felt terrible, for they considered the count a localhero.▪ Because you're a localhero to her.▪ Hill had established himself as a localhero and also as something of an eccentric.▪ He has a real medal chance so if Henley wants a localhero it's time to pay up.▪ The firefighters have become localheroes for their search and rescue efforts after the blast.national▪ He was a nationalhero and now he had the leverage to change golf.▪ His exploits on the Colorado River had made him a nationalhero, the most celebrated adventurer since Lewis and Clark.▪ This boy is a celebrity here, a nationalhero.▪ Brave, adventurous, single-minded, he died a nationalhero.▪ Charismatic, charming, he'd become a nationalhero.▪ At Silverstone, Hunt was the nationalhero.▪ Punjabis are now with the police, and Mr Gill is a nationalhero.popular▪ Yet Lowry was a popularhero who, when he died in 1977, was the most famous painter in Britain.▪ Farmers squealed that the popular porcine hero fueled a drop in pork sales as children boycotted Babe on a platter.▪ Inventors like Edison, Westinghouse, and Bell were popularheroes, to be emulated by younger men.▪ There is no more popularhero than Hercules.real▪ Maybe you'd know how to act if you had some more positive role models and some realheroes in your life.▪ Jim Magilton was made man of the match but for many United fans new keeper Phil Whitehead was the realhero.▪ Not Margarita, one of the realheroes of the book.▪ But my realhero was Victor de Sabata.▪ Their fantasy helps when the kids start thinking the wrestlers are heroes and the wrestlers become something like real heroes.▪ Stuntmen and stand-ins are the realheroes.tragic▪ Party chairman Chris Patten, the tragichero of the hour, arrived shortly after 11.00 for a lengthy post-mortem.▪ Sentimental comedy possesses several characteristics that are incompatible with the classic concept of tragedy and the tragichero.▪ But Laker, like all tragicheroes, had his fatal flaw, hubris.▪ In most cases the pesme sing of tragicheroes who met violent deaths, martyrs to the national cause.unsung▪ The ground crews within the Army Air Corps are generally the unsungheroes behind everything we do.▪ Tonight we meet some of the unsungheroes of Inspector Morse - the extras.▪ This country is full of unsungheroes.▪ Jimmy Wilde - one of the great unsungheroes of Crystal Palace, until today!▪ They were the unsungheroes of the whole appeal.▪ Les Stocker is another unsunghero in the Honours List.▪ They indicate that the big lad from West Birk Hatt is probably one of the finest unsungheroes of the last war.young▪ Instead of portraying a puffy-faced old tyrant, Picasso had drawn a younghero.▪ The guards hear him knocking and shouting but then our younghero comes back.▪ Thousands of Keen disks were ordered last month by EGA/VGA users proving the undying popularity of this loveable, young, hero. NOUNaction▪ Just ask Scratchman, the goofy actionhero who crusades for truth, justice and the Texas Lottery.▪ As an actionhero, Fletcher fails miserably in this endeavor.war▪ What right had I to tarnish the reputation of an acknowledged warhero and needlessly distress his family?▪ Stewart was viewed in Washington as something of a warhero.▪ I keep forgetting he's a warhero.▪ Then the warheroes came back home and bumped Lucky out ofhis place at the livery.▪ The ex-hunter, aviator and warhero, Tom Fairfax, who was her lover, is approaching in his biplane.▪ We were both warheroes, and both of us had just been elected to Congress.▪ Sometimes there were famous guests: heavyweight boxers, film actresses, warheroes, prime ministers.▪ Local Republicans figured a wounded warhero would be a natural political candidate.worship▪ He had a tendency toward heroworship and often gushed embarrassingly in correspondence with his heroes.▪ And it wasn't all heroworship. VERBbecome▪ He became a hero when he rescued a number of people from a blazing house fire.▪ The traditional outcast or pariah becomes the hero in this new age.▪ Instead he became a national hero who enjoyed a long life ... and who died with dignity.▪ By accident Jack became a hero, but maybe that was his nature, anyway.▪ The governor became a hero to many of his staff and prisoners, including the one slashed.▪ The Iron Man is befriended by a young child and in the end, becomes a hero.▪ So when Calley was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, he became a hero overnight.▪ Sometimes I lie here and wonder how you ever became a hero.hail▪ When Finubar returned to Ulthuan he was hailed as a great hero.▪ Rodgers, hailed none the less as a hero in papers across the country, was renowned for being taciturn.play▪ So you want to play the hero?▪ Hoffman plays a reluctant hero who disappears after rescuing plane crash survivors.▪ Sir Anthony Hopkins says it's a privilege to play a romantic hero at 55.▪ He was in his element playing doomed heroes and dandies, neurotics and aesthetes.▪ You know now not to play the hero, don't you?EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES▪ Conway returned home, hailed as a hero of the war.▪ Hamlet is Shakespeare's most famous tragic hero.▪ In cinema, the hero always got the girl and the bad guy was always punished.▪ Indiana Jones is the hero of the film.▪ Shakespeare's best-known tragic hero is probably Hamlet.▪ sports heroes▪ The hero of the story is a young soldier.▪ Who was the hero of "The Catcher in the Rye"?EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS▪ Because Masten was his hero, he was a little nervous.▪ Defense attorney Ana Ortiz, who referred to her client as Billyjack, said he is a hero by any name.▪ Here we have the concept of the maverick, the hero innovator, the streetwise entrepreneur, that several speakers have described.▪ His legend, like the stories of most heroes, begins badly.▪ It is counterproductive to be derogatory about hairstyle, clothing, or current countercultural heroes.▪ One is that the shelf life of heroes is short.▪ Racing drivers appear to be larger-than-life heroes.